What Sites Do Social Media Users Frequent?
A new study from comScore shows that heavy users of social networking sites favor leisure-related retail sites. Heavy users of social networking sites are significantly more likely than average to visit leisure-oriented retail site categories, such as music, jewelry/luxury goods/accessories and consumer electronics than the average Internet user.
According to data from Internet Retailer, heavy social networkers accounted for 28.5% of visitors to music sites and 26.5% of visitors to jewelry/luxury goods/accessories sites. In addition, they represented nearly one-quarter of visitors to apparel sites (24.8%), tickets sites (24.5%), consumer electronics sites (23.9%), sports/outdoor sites (23.8%), computer software sites (23.7%), book sites (23.6%), movie sites (23.4%) and computer hardware sites (22.7%).
“There appears to be a natural synergy between the leisure categories and social networking sites,” says Gian Fulgoni, chairman of comScore. “People typically enjoy sharing their experiences with these products, whether it’s to talk about their new iPhone or the pair of designer jeans they just bought. Social networking sites offer the venue for those conversations to occur.”
The study also found that fashion and apparel sites oriented to young adults attracted the highest percentage of visitors from the social networking segment. The top ten sites were TattooJohnny.com, where heavy social networkers accounted for 55.7% of site visitors; Alloy (51.7%); HollisterCo.com (50.3%); HotTopic.com (49.8%); PacSun.com (48.1%); Wetseal Inc. (45.9%); Forever 21 Inc. (43.5%); Aeropostale.com (43.4%); Abercrombie & Fitch Co. (43.4%); and AE.com (42.8%).
“Apparel retailers—especially those geared towards younger consumers—can benefit by considering the use of social networking sites as a marketing channel,” Fulgoni says.
comScore defined a heavy user as the top 20% of visitors to social networking sites based on time spent on the sites.
This data indicates that downstream traffic from social networking sites is still primarily consumer driven. Is that because retailers have done a better job of targeting social media users than businesses have, or is there another reason why B2B still lags behind in social networking?
Filed under Brand Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Social Media Optimization, Social Retailing : Comments (7) : Oct 31st, 2007
October 31st, 2007 at 10:09 am
[...] - Social Media Optimization placed an observative post today on What Sites Do Social Media Users Frequent?Here’s a quick excerpt [...]
October 31st, 2007 at 11:50 pm
[...] David Wilson put an intriguing blog post on What Sites Do Social Media Users Frequent?.Here’s a quick excerpt:A new study from comScore shows that heavy users of social networking sites favor leisure-related retail sites. Heavy users of social networking sites are significantly more likely than average to visit leisure-oriented retail site … [...]
November 1st, 2007 at 12:36 am
[...] David Wilson added an interesting post on What Sites Do Social Media Users Frequent?.Here’s a small excerpt:According to data from Internet Retailer, heavy social networkers accounted for 28.5% of visitors to music sites and 26.5% of visitors to jewelry/luxury goods/accessories sites. In addition, they represented nearly one-quarter of … [...]
November 1st, 2007 at 7:55 pm
[...] read more here Author Alonso Richmond Comments (0) [...]
November 2nd, 2007 at 8:31 am
I’d be interested to see which social media sites this survey used as its sample; I’d imagine the sites change quite substantially for more travel related social networks (WAYN) for example.
November 2nd, 2007 at 10:00 am
I’m assuming they used large, broad audience, social networks like Myspace or Facebook. Rather than niche social sites like WAYN, Bakespace, or Outdoorzy.
Its an interesting conclusion though. Seems this would turn the light on for those in the leisure industry to the power of social media.
November 4th, 2007 at 6:36 am
[...] libervisco wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptIn addition, they represented nearly one-quarter of visitors to apparel sites (24.8%), tickets sites (24.5%), consumer electronics sites (23.9%), sports/outdoor sites (23.8%), computer software sites (23.7%), book sites (23.6%), … [...]